MPATH Faculty
MPATH Pod Leaders
Each MPATH will be assigned to a small group called a Pod. Each Pod will have its own Pod Leader.
The Pod Leaders are experienced massage therapists who have worked or are working in palliative care and hospice settings with interdisciplinary teams. Pod Leaders meet with their Pods once each month for small group meetings for mentorship and support in the development of their portfolios.
The MPATH program has borrowed generously from accepted models of competency-based medical education currently in use in nursing and physician education programs. As such, each MPATH will be building a portfolio comprised of assessments, self-reflections, feedback from their externship preceptors and other indications of their path in the program as engaged learners. The Pod Leaders will be an essential support to MPATHs in this process.
Pediatric Oncology Massage Therapist at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital
Mandy Bartolovich, CPMT, LMT is the first pediatric oncology massage therapist to serve at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio...
in the Angie Fowler AYA Cancer Institute. She is employed through UH Connor Whole Health, and is licensed through the State Medical Board of Ohio. Her current massage specialties aim to support pediatric, adolescent, and young adult oncology and hematology patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. She certified in pediatric massage therapy in 2017 with a focus on pediatric oncology massage since 2019. She previously worked with pediatric patients as a medical assistant.
Throughout her career, Mandy has provided care across the lifespan from newborn to adult. Mandy incorporates different modalities into each massage session to assist her patients to achieve optimal outcomes.
Former Instructor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic and Massage Therapist
Liza Dion graduated from Sutherland-Chan Massage Therapy & Teaching Clinic in Toronto, Canada in 1996. She worked in private practice...
until moving to Rochester, MN in 2001.
She accepted a full time position at the Mayo Clinic in 2008 in the Integrative Medicine and Health Department (IMH) as an inpatient massage therapist. She is a Registered Massage Therapist who holds certifications in Oncology Massage and Grief Support Specialist, both of which have greatly enhanced her skill set and deepened her commitment to caring for others.
Working in a large institution afforded Liza time to contribute beyond the hospital room. She served on many committees including Bereavement, IMH research, IMH education, and Healing Enhancement for post-surgical patients. She continues to volunteer with Mayo Hospice.
One of her most valued achievements was helping plan and teach the Hospital Based Massage Therapy course along side her colleagues. She was also involved in several massage therapy research studies and has been published in peer reviewed journals.
Liza especially cherished her time working with critically ill and end of life patients. She recently retired from Mayo Clinic in 2025.
Operations Director at Healwell
Kerry is the Operations Director and a teacher for Healwell and she is an essential part of the curriculum development team...
She brings more than 20 years of experience as an instructor and has an extensive background in teaching yoga, meditation, bodywork, and mindfulness.
Before training as a massage therapist, Kerry owned and operated a successful yoga studio in Boston. She has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1999.
Kerry enjoys weaving the principles of yoga and meditation into her teaching and service work with massage therapists and other healthcare providers
Curriculum Specialist and Lead Instructor at Healwell and Author
Rebecca is Healwell’s Curriculum Specialist and Lead Instructor. She works tirelessly to organize existing courses and to create new...
opportunities for Healwell to offer meaningful and robust inter-professional education for massage therapists and other healthcare providers. Rebecca co-authored Oncology Massage: An integrative approach to cancer care (Handspring, 2021.).
As a former teacher of writing at the college level, Rebecca is passionate about the written word and about all forms of human communication. She seeks to create and support connection in everything she does.
MPATH Faculty
Healwell's MPATH Program is supported by an impressive interdisciplinary faculty that includes nurses, chaplains, social workers, physicians, ethicists, massage therapists, and others from leading hospitals, universities and clinical programs around the world.
One of the aspects that makes the MPATH Program unique is this direct access to and experience with providers from other disciplines. We are honored by their collaborative spirit and commitment to clinical excellence.
Clinical Lead at Healwell
Steph Bean is a Clinical Lead at Healwell. Steph graduated from Potomac Massage Training Institute...
and received an Associate’s Degree in Health Education from Montgomery College, both in 2005 and has made a career of working with people to better understand and support their own health and healing ever since. Steph has training in traditional massage work, neuromuscular therapy, trauma integration, and also has experience working with complicated medical needs and with people in all stages of life and at the end of life. Other specialized training includes Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, a very gentle modality that supports the nervous system. Steph's goal is to provide resources for integrating the body’s experience in a way that helps facilitate the ability to be present, enabling better access to one’s whole body, mind, and spirit.
Off the job, Steph is very involved in family, their faith community, getting lost in a good book, and enjoying nature whenever possible.
Service Director at Healwell
Laura is Healwell's Service Director and a member of the curriculum development team...
As Healwell’s Service Director, Laura coordinates, supervises, and provides care for Healwell’s hands-on programs and cultivates and strengthens relationships with medical and administrative staff.
Laura has been a practicing massage therapist since 2018 and a manual lymph drainage therapist since 2019. Before becoming a licensed massage therapist, Laura taught English in Japan for 19 years. It was in massage school that she heard of something called “oncology massage” and felt drawn to it. Passionate about learning, Laura has continued her advanced training in the fields of oncology massage, scar tissue manipulation and manual lymph drainage. She has provided massage in a variety of settings including corporate, private practice and spas. Because of her own massage experiences, Laura appreciates how massage can play a supportive role in health care and the journey that is being human.
Executive Director at Healwell
Cal Cates is Healwell's founder and Executive Director. They have been a massage therapist since 2005...
and an advocate for a better world since they lobbied for a National Working Horses Day in 3rd grade.
Over the course of their career, Cal has become an award-winning writer, published researcher, and international speaker. They have trained thousands of healthcare providers in skills of resiliency, self-awareness, communication, and forgiveness.
Cal has dedicated their career to advocacy in healthcare, massage therapy as social justice, and to revolutionizing education for healthcare providers. They will dance at any party anywhere.
Principal at LifeSprings Consulting Group & CEO at The Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care
Marisette Hasan has worked professionally as an RN since 1981 in various roles: oncology nurse...
hospice nurse, clinical manager, home health and hospice administrator, and nurse consultant. She is passionately engaged in supporting hospice and palliative care providers in North and South Carolina through leadership, innovation, public advocacy, and regulatory technical assistance.
With the onset of COVID-19 and the spotlight on health inequities, she began providing consultation on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) both regionally and nationally. As an African American nurse and Senior Executive Leader, she brings a unique perspective to help increase access to care for Black and Brown communities. Notably, she led a grassroots advance care planning initiative funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of South Carolina, focusing on rural and underserved communities.
She has been a guest speaker/panel facilitator for various regional and national forums, promoting public advocacy on building trust and improving serious illness care in Black and Brown communities. In 2023, Marisette launched Life Spring Consulting Group offering a range of uniquely inspired education and collaboration services for hospice and palliative care teams and providers.
Death Doula and End of Life Educator at Loyal Hands & President of National End-of-Life Doula Alliance
Ashley Johnson is president of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance. She is a dedicated professional...
with a passion for ensuring compassionate and informed end-of-life care for all.
With a diverse background and an unwavering commitment to her community, Ashley is at the forefront of the death care industry. As an alumna of the University of Florida, a licensed direct disposer and celebrant, Ashley possesses a deep understanding of the intricacies involved in end-of-life practices.
Her journey began in a low socio-economic neighborhood, where she witnessed the need for advocacy and support in navigating these sensitive moments. This experience fueled her determination to make a difference.
With over a decade of experience spanning from forensic anthropology to whole-body donation, Ashley founded Loyal Hands, an end-of-life doula consulting agency. Loyal Hands is dedicated to providing education, services, resources, and companionship to agencies, the elderly, and even those in good health, recognizing that everyone has an end-of-life journey to navigate.
Ashley actively engages with various organizations, including memberships in the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA), and the Florida Palliative Care Coalition.
In addition to her professional endeavors, Ashley volunteers at several hospices and non-profit organizations, and she serves as the event director for the "Get Your Rear in Gear" 5k run/walk event for the Colon Cancer Coalition.
Ashley has been a part of a PsychArmor Working Group, contributing to the creation of a series dedicated to caring for veterans through end of life. Her educational background includes a Non-Profit Management Certificate from the University of Central Florida. As a member of the Compassion & Choices African American Leadership Council and a TEDx speaker, Ashley amplifies her voice to advocate for improved end-of-life care, diversity, and inclusivity in the field.
Chief Executive Officer at PANDA Education Consultants
Deborah Lafond, DNP, PPCNP-BC, CPON, CHPPN, FPCN, FAAN
is Founder and Chief Executive...
Officer of the PANDA Education Consultants, an organization created to develop, implement and evaluate interprofessional pediatric and neonatal primary palliative care education and mentorship in clinical practice and on professional resilience.
Dr. Lafond also provides consultation on pediatric palliative care program development.
Dr. Lafond worked as a Nurse Practitioner at Children's National Hospital for more than 30 years. She was Director of clinical services for the Pediatric Advanced Needs Assessment and Care Team (affectionately known as the PANDA Care Team) from 2012-2024. The PANDA Care Team provides care to infants, children, adolescents and young adults with a variety of life-limiting illnesses, from the time of diagnosis to assist in decision making, symptom management, promotion of comfort and quality of life.
In her role as Director of clinical services, Dr. Lafond served as as the primary nurse practitioner for the team and coordinated a variety of clinical, educational, research and community outreach activities to promote access to palliative and end-of-life care for children with advanced life-limiting illnesses.
Clinical Lead at Healwell
Dawn Lamonica is a Clinical Lead at Healwell...
She has been a professional massage therapist for over 20 years, practicing in Miami, Boston, and the District of Columbia.
In her role as Clinical Lead, Dawn provides massage therapy to adults and children affected by serious illness, co-teaches Healwell's hospital-based massage therapy courses, and provides administrative support to the Service Director.
Associate Program Director, Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Children's National Hospital
Ashley Lanzel, MD, MA, trained in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, pediatric hematology-oncology...
at Emory/Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and hospice and palliative medicine at the National Institutes of Health. While at Emory University, she obtained a Master of Arts in bioethics. Her research focus is in decision-making, communication, palliative oncology and pediatric palliative ethics. She enjoys being a clinical educator. When she is not at work, she is having fun with her kids.
Founder and Executive Director of Tip It Forward
Kammaleathahh Livingstone is a Board Certified Structural Integrator with certification from Anatomy Trains...
and is a multi-speciality licensed massage therapist with a focus on health equity and trauma-informed care.
Since 2007, learning to adapt therapeutic bodywork cross-culturally, she has worked with people from every continent, from countries such as Palestine, Nepal, and Mexico, and people of various socioeconomic backgrounds.
Kammaleathahh has a degree in Sociology/Cultural Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Studies from Guilford College. She is the founder and Executive Director of
Tip It Forward
, a nonprofit based in Louisville, Ky on a mission to provide equitable, trauma-informed, whole health services to underserved individuals, families, and neighborhoods.
Faculty Director, Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care at CSUSM at California State University San Marcos
Michael McDuffie is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at California State University San Marcos...
He specializes in bioethics and clinical ethics and is an adjunct faculty member for the CSUSM School of Nursing. McDuffie is also the Faculty Director of the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care at CSUSM. McDuffie serves as a Community Member of the Hospital Ethics Committee and Clinical Ethics Consulting Team at Palomar Health, Escondido CA. He is also a Community Member of the Ethics Committee at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego. He sits as a Non-Physician Public Representative on the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Advisory Committee of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a past Public At-Large Representative on the Critical Care Medicine Subspecialty Board of ABIM. McDuffie earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Literature at New College of Florida and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Yale University. His early-career publications mostly addressed phenomenological philosophy, on topics of aesthetics, the philosophy of literature, and the social construction of meaning. In recent years he has focused on bioethics, and his current research addresses assorted topics in the philosophy of medicine and clinical ethics: mind/body interaction, neuroethics, the goals of medicine, problems of non-beneficial treatment, decision making for unrepresented patients, and other topics.
Massage Therapist, Researcher & Educator
Ronna Moore is a Remedial, Oncology and Palliative Care Massage and Lymphoedema Therapist...
located in Melbourne Australia.
Ronna is a member of Massage Myotherapy Australia, the Australasian Lymphology Association, Palliative Care Australia and the Society for Oncology Massage. She is employed as a massage therapist in a major comprehensive cancer centre.Ronna has a Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care from the University of Melbourne and is currently a Graduate Researcher in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University investigating the role of massage therapy in Australian specialist palliative care settings.
Ronna is a certified Mindfulness Based Stillness Meditation Teacher and a trained Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher. Ronna is an enthusiastic supporter of Healwell, its people and their mission.
Chair and Associate Professor - Department of Health Sciences at Indiana University School of Health & Human Sciences
Niki Munk, Ph.D., LMT, is Chair and Associate Professor in the department of Health Sciences at Indiana...
University School of Health & Human Sciences. She is a clinically trained and licensed massage therapist and completed her doctoral training in gerontology at the University of Kentucky.
Munk is one of 13 international fellows in the International Complementary Medicine Research leadership program at University Technology Sydney (UTS): Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM). In addition, Munk is a Massage Therapy Foundation trustee and co-investigator on the VA-funded TOMCATT study, which examines care-ally assisted and therapist provided massage for veterans with chronic neck pain.
Prior to beginning her appointment as faculty at the School of Health & Human Sciences, Munk worked in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Kentucky on the KYPROS study which examined real-world massage therapy for primary care patients with chronic low back pain. Before her research career, Munk was the associate then program director for the Lexington Healing Arts Academy in Lexington, Kentucky, and president of In Touch Inc., which provided massage therapy for older adults in their homes, care centers, or in professional therapeutic space.
Munk’s research explores real-world massage therapy for chronic low back pain, trigger point self-care, massage for amputation related sequelae, and the reporting and impact of massage related case reports among other projects. Among Munk’s various academic duties, she is a core professor in the school’s doctoral program in health and rehabilitation sciences and teaches the aging-related courses in the undergraduate health sciences program. Munk was recognized for her excellence in teaching and mentoring with the 2018 IU Indianapolis trustees’ teaching award.
Founder and CEO for the CareWell Center and Senior Advisor at (C-TAC)
Elder Angela Overton, M.Div., is widely known for her realistic and dynamic teaching style...
She has been preaching, teaching, and providing pastoral care in congregations and communities for over 30 years.
She is the founder and CEO for the CareWell Center in Louisville, KY, where she works with faith leaders to care well for those in their respective communities. She is a Senior Advisor at the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) and works with faith leaders, community-based organizations, and diversity leaders across the United States to improve serious illness care in our health systems.
Angela is a cancer survivor, which she believes has been one of her greatest accomplishments and best experiences outside of being a mother. It is her belief that this experience provided the lens of the patient and fueled her desire, drive and devotion to intersect spiritual and clinical care for those facing illness. She has volunteered for, and worked with numerous faith-based and not-for-profit organizations. She currently sits on the board of Care Guide Partners, Grantmakers in Aging Task Force on Equity in Aging Philanthropy, and Wurzweiler School of Social Work Yeshiva University Interfaith Clergy Advisory Committee.
Angela earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History with a concentration in Social Sciences from the University of Louisville and a Master of Divinity degree and a Black Church Studies Certificate from Louisville Seminary. She received her ordination as Elder at Mount Zion Fellowship in Cleveland, OH and as Reverend at Green Castle Baptist Church in Louisville, KY.
MSSW Program Director & Assistant Professor at the Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville
Susan Heffner Rhema has a PhD from the Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville, where she is also...
an assistant professor.
Dr. Rhema has an MSW from the University of Maryland, School of Social Work, and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, (LCSW), in Arizona and Kentucky.
Dr. Rhema has lived in Kenya, Peru and Mexico. And, while working with international agencies, evaluating programs and personnel she has traveled to over 25 countries in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Central Asia, and East Asia.
In her private practice, Dr. Rhema specializes in the treatment of severe trauma. She provides holistic therapeutic services to individual survivors, groups, and children. Dr. Rhema practices a variety of alternative and expressive treatment modalities and has formal training in Mind Body Medicine, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, (EMDR), Energy Psychology, Intuitive Body Work, Cognitive-Behavioral and Expressive therapies.
Dr. Rhema has authored several peer-reviewed articles and a number of resources for use in training people to work in multi-cultural settings. She provides training in the areas of trauma-informed care, cross cultural psychological assessment and cross cultural competency training.
Assistant professor in the CEHHS School of Nursing at California State University San Marcos
Katie Robinson, PhD, RN-BC, CHPN is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at California State University San...
Marcos (CSUSM), the Palliative Care Curriculum Coordinator and the founding chair of the Palliative Care Committee for the nursing program, and a member of the College of Education, Health, and Human Services’ Dean’s Interprofessional Taskforce. Clinically, she practiced as a community-based hospice and palliative nurse since 2009 and has been board certified in hospice and palliative nursing since 2011. She remains active in the local and national hospice and palliative community, including serving on the CHPN Situational Judgement Exam Development Committee for the Hospice and Palliative Nursing Certification Board and collaborating with the CSU Shiley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care and the CSUSM campus partner office on palliative and interprofessional education initiatives. Her research focuses on early identification and assessment of palliative care needs by interprofessional palliative care teams to both increase collaboration among interprofessional palliative team members and improve comprehensive care for patients with serious illness and their families.
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Palliative Care at MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Candice Tavares is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist with over 14 years of dedicated experience in palliative care...
and pain management. She is passionate about improving quality of life for patients facing serious illness. Her approach is rooted in compassionate, equitable, evidence-based care, always prioritizing the individual needs, values, and goals of each patient.
Candice specializes in optimizing medication regimens for complex symptom management, ensuring safe, effective, and personalized treatment plans. Throughout her career, she has developed strong collaborative relationships with interdisciplinary teams, including physicians, nurses, social workers, and other healthcare professionals, to deliver holistic and coordinated care.
